News from Lik Sang

Tomy, who brought us the smashing Naruto: Gekitou Ninja Taisen series for GameCube, plus the Naruto RPG and Naruto: Saikyo Ninja Daikesshu series for the GBA and NDS, have come out with something special this week. Their Naruto: Saikyo Ninja Daikesshu titles have typically been side scrolling action affairs, but this 4th installment breaks the mould and comes out a full on four player melee fighting fest instead! In stock many days before the Japanese release, all pre-orders have been cleared and new purchases are welcome anytime. Don't forget either, because the DS is region free, Naruto will play no matter where you picked up your handheld.



Beyond beating each other down Jump Superstars style, another option is single and multiplayer Mission Mode. Ranking your performance, there's a wide variety of challenges such as three on one fights, thrashing a boss, protecting people or areas like the supports of a bridge, taking out a number of animals, capturing flags and many more; not to forget those tough ones that really weed out the boys from the men like grabbing 10 bowls of Ramen!

All this action plays out up on the top screen, taking place in huge 2D environments across roof tops, jungles, cliffs, trains, snowy mountain tops and more. Meanwhile the touch screen is used to display each of the four character's stats, a useful radar and selection of special moves on four panels. After tapping one you use the stylus to draw Jutsu seals which let rip the giant super moves and massive damage. Certain moves like Sasuke’s Fire Jutsu on the other hand, require different approaches like blowing into the microphone. The accompanying pre-rendered cut scenes then play out down there while the fights continue to roll on up top. ...

News from Lik Sang

Tomy, who brought us the smashing Naruto: Gekitou Ninja Taisen series for GameCube, plus the Naruto RPG and Naruto: Saikyo Ninja Daikesshu series for the GBA and NDS, have come out with something special this week. Their Naruto: Saikyo Ninja Daikesshu titles have typically been side scrolling action affairs, but this 4th installment breaks the mould and comes out a full on four player melee fighting fest instead! In stock many days before the Japanese release, all pre-orders have been cleared and new purchases are welcome anytime. Don't forget either, because the DS is region free, Naruto will play no matter where you picked up your handheld.



Beyond beating each other down Jump Superstars style, another option is single and multiplayer Mission Mode. Ranking your performance, there's a wide variety of challenges such as three on one fights, thrashing a boss, protecting people or areas like the supports of a bridge, taking out a number of animals, capturing flags and many more; not to forget those tough ones that really weed out the boys from the men like grabbing 10 bowls of Ramen!

All this action plays out up on the top screen, taking place in huge 2D environments across roof tops, jungles, cliffs, trains, snowy mountain tops and more. Meanwhile the touch screen is used to display each of the four character's stats, a useful radar and selection of special moves on four panels. After tapping one you use the stylus to draw Jutsu seals which let rip the giant super moves and massive damage. Certain moves like Sasuke’s Fire Jutsu on the other hand, require different approaches like blowing into the microphone. The accompanying pre-rendered cut scenes then play out down there while the fights continue to roll on up top. ...

News from Eurogamer

Game Republic's quite busy, it seems. Yoshiki Okamoto's already said his Japanese studio's working on an unnamed Xbox 360 game, and now Famitsu's revealed that it's also handling the PSP version of Brave Story.

In an article partly translated by IGN, Famitsu says the PSP one's called Brave Story: Aratanaru Tabijin (New Traveller), and will be a role-playing game.

The Brave Story games, as you may know, are based on Miyuki Miyabe's Japanese manga of the same name, which is being adapted into an animated film due out in Japan this July, directed by Koichi Chigira. (And when I say "you may know" I'm talking to Rob, obviously.)

Sony Japan's announced plans to do both PS2 and PSP games, and while the PS2 is more of an action-adventure, the PSP title will see you play as an original character on a quest involving the original cast.

In the original Brave Story, er, story, 10-year-old Wataru ends up in a bizarre world called Vision, where he makes new friends, learns magic and tries to make his way to a particular goddess who, he hopes, can save his mother's life.

Sony's yet to announce UK dates for either Brave Story title. ...

Killer 7 creator Suda Goichi is working on a PlayStation 3 title called Kurayami, which means "Darkness" in Japanese.

Appropriately enough it's about someone stuck in a strange village with a torch; the player takes control and has to solve puzzles and deal with general weirdness to find his way out.

Details are scant, but w eknow Goichi will be working with regular pals Grasshopper.

An Edge feature on Grasshopper - the source of the reports, and home to some interesting concept art - also talks about the developer's professed Kafka influence.

Expect a bit of weirdness then - anyone who played Capcom's Killer 7 will already know the sort of thing Goichi's capable of, while those with a Nintendo DS may already be on the lookout for another of his games, Contact, in which the player tries to find the scattered pieces of an alien professor's power-source.

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=64063 ...

SEGA's begun its E3-teasing with a very welcome announcement - Virtua Tennis 3 is on its way to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Due out next spring and on display at E3, VT3 is the most visually detailed VT game yet - SEGA's promising "photo-realistic graphics and advanced player animations" including detailed facial expressions. See screenshots to make your own mind up. SEGA's creative director Matt Woodley reckons "the quality is so sharp and clear you can even see the veins on the players' necks". And the whatever-else on Maria Sharapova, my dad will be hoping.

There'll be new gameplay features too. Although the fundamental tennis game is unlikely to change a great deal (given how brilliant it was anyway, we can't say we mind that much), we can expect a host of new mini-games to join the most popular from previous VT titles.

Mini-games of course contribute to VT's Career mode, which will be back here, taking you all over the world and across every court surface - with new players and refined artificial intelligence for the ones you're up against. You'll also be able to customise your own character to a previously unachievable degree.

No word on online multiplayer yet, but it seems like a bit of a shoo-in.

We'll bring you our thoughts on Virtua Tennis 3 when we get to E3. Well, Kristan's thoughts - it's not like he's going to let anybody else near this one.

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=64045 ...

News from Eurogamer

Sony appears to have finally woken up to the idea of downloadable PSP demos - and today's release is for one we've been looking forward to for absolutely ages, LocoRoco.

A trial version of the game, which involves tilting the play area to wobble some blobs around platform-style levels, is available from the game's Japanese site now.
The actual download is only 8MB, but unfortunately you'll first need to download the new 2.7 system firmware to play it.

Once you've done that - and although Sony would discourage you from running the US firmware on a UK PSP, there's actually nothing stopping you - you can download the demo, put your PSP in USB Connection mode while connected to your PC, and by popping the EBOOT.PBP file in a /PSP/GAME/UCJS1O041/ folder on your Memory Stick Duo you should put yourself in a position to join in the fun.

The only thing you might want to bear in mind is that version 2.7 firmware will rule out any chance you had of running homebrew code - at least until someone cracks this one, anyway.

LocoRoco is due out over here on 23rd June according to Sony's most recent UK schedule. ...

Microsoft has just announced a new premium bundle of content for its flagship launch shooter Perfect Dark Zero. Although Ms Dark's adventures haven't perhaps set the world on fire in quite the way MS and Rare expected, the new content should give PDZ a whole new lease of life.

The bundle is set to add in four new multiplayer maps for the shooter and, apparently, it's just the first of a wave of new downloads Microsoft is ready to make available to big up the game.

For existing PDZ players, a new auto update will add eight bots to multiplayer proceedings, including a venge bot who targets the last player with a kill, a judge bot who attacks the current leader and a bully bot, who targets players at the bottom of the kill ladder.

Anyone fancying a sample will get a chance to try out the new additions in a free demo which will feature the Outpost campaign level, plus a free Plaza multiplayer map, with solo, split screen and Live co-op modes all supported. No word on pricing quite yet, but the demo debut should be fairly imminent, so keep an eye on Live for its arrival.
http://www.computerandvideogames.com....php?id=138407 ...

News from CVG

Arriving in Europe today with Flash support, improved music playback and, from May 25, LocationFree TV!

As we reported yesterday, Japanese PSP owners are in line for a new PSP Firmware update 2.7, which adds some funky new features like Macromedia Flash support and the ability to play various music files.

We also hoped news of a similar European Firmware release wouldn't be too far behind, but Sony has only gone and surprised us by announcing it just one day later, no doubt sparking tears of joy amongst European fans of its sleek little handheld.

Just like the Japanese PSP update, Euro PSP owners will get splendid new Flash support for browsing the web, as well as now being able to play MP3, ATRAC, AAC and WMA music file formats, substantially increasing their audio options.

Advertisement:Perhaps the most interesting development though is 2.7's LocationFree TV, with Sony promising that instead of watching a TV set, TV will now come to you via your home tuner. Apparently you'll be able to watch live TV from wherever you are, playback recorded programmes and even set a timer to tape future recordings, with LocationFree being launched in the UK, France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands from next month.

Seems like a splendid development and, if it means we'll never miss an episode of Lost or Green Wing again, that's just fine by us. You'll be able to score LocationFree TV and all the other goodies from May 25, by heading on over to www.yourpsp.com, or by downloading it direct via wi-fi, now.

Remember that Homebrew is a goner before you update ...

Carrying on from what we posted yesterday about Homebrew not working on the new v2.70 firmware, today it has been released and confirmed that Sony have plugged the hole. Lets see if this causes any problems with games working, but for homebrew fans if you upgrade you lose the ability to play homebrew, the balls in your court.\

Pages for Japanese and US Firmware are here -->

Japanese Firmware:http://www.jp.playstation.com/psp/update/ud_01.html

USA Firmware:
http://www.us.playstation.com/psp.as...SoftwareUpdate

No News on a Euro 2.70 ? yet ...